When there's a lot of data, it might be hard to look at the metrics that matter. You could get lost in the numbers, and instead turn to vanity metrics— such as social media follows or subscribers—for some semblance of control.

But those don't keep you competitive in today's 24/7 digital economy, especially in the long run. Boosting those numbers is worthless if they don't convert prospects into customers. What will help is focusing on metrics that are more customer-centric that and will give you actionable data and timely user feedback.

Here are five metrics that'll have you focusing on your customers, along with the marketing tech tools that'll turn those metrics into actions.

1. Team Collaboration and Management

Metrics to watch: Number of Tasks Created and Completed, Team Workload, Time Spent on Tasks and Projects Compared to Original Plan

2. Acquisition Metrics

Metrics to watch: Number of New Acquisitions, Number of New Leads, Market Share, Revenue

Kissmetrics: Build customer funnels and sort website visitors into groups based on common actions and triggers, so you can understand more about how potential customers are engaging with your content/website.

Unbounce: Use A/B testing to discover which features, website elements, or marketing messages are most successful when it comes to eliciting a desired action or response from potential customers.

Marketo: This marketing automation suite helps you analyze and improve performance along the funnel, from emails to landing pages to forms. It ensures you collect the right information from potential customers and automatically plugs them into the appropriate nurture campaigns.

4. Competitive Analysis

Metrics to watch: Rate of Acquisition, Growth Rate by Industry, Share of Voice

SEM Rush: See top organic keywords, keyword rank, and search volume for keywords that are driving organic traffic to your competitors' websites. Discover opportunities where you can gain valuable ground.

SimilarWeb: Get an estimate of your competitors' traffic over the last 6 months across all channels to understand which traffic sources, referral sites, organic and paid keywords, and social channels are giving them the most visitors.

Google Advanced Search: Find out where your competitors are getting valuable backlinks. Type “Link:” and the domain that you want to investigate to see which third-party websites your competitors are building relationships with, and which can potentially send high-quality referrals to your site.